Civil Service Panel Placing Disappointment

TheBrunk

A few months back I got the results of a competition I had applied for. To my disappointment, I was placed right in the middle of the list of candidates. I expect this panel will last the guts of two years and if I remain on it, I will eventually get a place but it could take a long time.

Normally, I would be delighted with the result but I feel massively disappointed. I have been in the civil service five years and people have been telling me from day one that I would be a great fit for this role. I have academic qualifications which are relevant and a year ago, I moved into a role with a lot of similarities, taking a de facto pay cut, as I thought the experience would stand to me in interview. I also undertook an internal training course which is made for this new role and got excellent results. I suppose I foolishly counted my chickens and saw myself placing much higher up the panel and being guaranteed a spot. Part of me thinks I fell victim to management games as well, as a competition would be required to replace me in my current job if I moved to the new one. It seems like there are only ran every 2-3 years and they want to get their value out of me before letting me go. However, I could have just given a very average interview!

Does anyone have any advice about how to get over the disappointment? It is still niggling at me months later. I'm working as best I can but I'm now considering whether I even want to ever go this new role, if/when I got offered a place from the panel. It's just turned me right off it. I'm considering whether to apply for a role in an area I would never have previously considered that was recently advertised. I feel like I was so focused on this one job, I ignored other areas I might have enjoyed. However, I have heard anecdotally that if I apply for this new position while still on the panel, it could be held against me if I ever went in there.

LubaDriver

It's hard to.say because there is often no rhyme, reason or consistency in how interviews are conducted or scored. As an example I did an interview and was marked as a fail across all six competencies (it wasn't a bad interview, and I'd be the first to admit if I felt I fluffed it) then a couple of months later I give a near identical interview for a similar role and I am successful. I have to admit, I felt totally at sea and disillusioned after the first one and it made me extremely cynical about the process.

I actually now think that interviews should be held in two parts, with the first five competencies examined by people external to the organisation and only the sixth, the job specific competence by people within the organisation.

It's all down to the other person's speil being better than yours. Nothing to do with experience.

TheBrunk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698242#Comment_121698242

True, feeling a bit cycnical myself. I wish all these competitions were given a timeline at the start, so you knew how long you'd be waiting instead of having to second guess. The expectation that you should put your life on hold for 3 years is the biggest annoyance!

I'm going to go for the other role anyway, no gurantee I'll get it but it'll give me something to aim for at least.

Chaos Black

If you applied through PAS, and really this should apply to internal comps as well, then the competency interviews are very formulaic and scored on what competencies you display on the day in the interview via articulating examples, responses to probing questions and showing repeatable likely future behaviors.

I think where some can fall down, is they may be very well qualified and others around them might also say that, but in the interview it is not demonstrated on the day via failing to hit the competencies in responses.

Only you and the interviewers know how you did on the day, and sometimes I suggest that for the interviewee it can be difficult to properly assess their own performance.

TheBrunk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709369#Comment_121709369

I agree it can be hard to assess your own performance, barring some obvious disaster in the interview. I suppose we tend to think we are the best qualified but maybe can't quite get it across as well as others on the day.